Monday, Jun 27, 2016

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar is warning that the United Kingdom’s surprise decision to leave the European Union could affect its own decisions to invest in Europe going forward.

The referendum’s results, announced on Friday, has caught many off guard and its true implications are still not known with the UK’s exit set to take two-years.

“We still have several projects in the pipeline in Europe but this current change might impact out decisions in the future,” Masdar chief executive Mohammad Jameel Al Ramahi said at a press conference in Dubai on Monday.

Masdar, owned by Abu Dhabi investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company, has invested in several British and European clean-energy projects including London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm.

Masdar is carefully “monitoring the situation” in the UK and Europe but “it’s too early to give you a clear answer” on the vote’s implications on existing and future projects there, Al Ramahi said.

Masdar’s list of European projects in the pipeline include a second offshore wind farm in the UK, though the company says it sees much of its future growth in the Middle East and North Africa.

Masdar’s “focus in terms of capital deployment” would continue to be in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Al Ramahi said. The GCC includes the Middle East’s two largest economies Saudi Arabia and the UAE. A Masdar-led consortium was formally announced on Sunday as the winning bid to build a 800 megawatt solar power plant at Dubai’s Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park.

Earlier on Monday, Masdar clean energy director Bader Al Lamki said he was bullish on the region.

“There are tenders in Jordan, in Morocco, in Egypt. I think the whole sector by and large is hungry for energy.”

By Alexander Cornwell Staff Reporter

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